Publication Order of Charlie Fox Collections

Orsalia Charlotte Fox (Charlie) is the protagonist in a series of crime thriller novels, that were written by British Zoe Sharp. In these crime series, Charlie a tough heroin, who gives lessons of self-defense to women. She has a dark past, as she also served at the military forces. In fact, Charlie was selected to join a training program in Special Forces, but it turned out to be an extremely wrong decision for her. This is because she was actually kicked out of the army forces and then she tried to do a number of other jobs, like teaching self-defence classes. But at a point in her life, she met again with her former instructor and this changed her life again. In fact, the heroin has been described as a female version of Jack Reacher (Lee Child). Sharp’s novels have been published in England and in United States, though the publications in the U.S. began only after the first few books in the series were out in he native England.

Zoe wroter her first nove when she was 15 years old, but her success came with the publication of the first book of the crime thriller series ‘Killer Instinct, which was published in August 2001, by Piatkus books. Then followed the rest books of the series, like ‘Riot Act’ (2002, Piatkus Books), ‘Hard Knocks’ (2002, Piatkus Books), ‘First Drop’ (2004, St. Martin Minotaur/Dunne), ‘ Road Kill’ (2005, Piatkus books), ‘Second Shot’ (2007, Piatkus books). The later novels of Charlie Fox, like ‘First Drop’ and ‘Fourth Day’ were actually finalists for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. In addition, these crime Charlie Fox series have also been optioned for TV series. All the titles of these series books had striking new covers and titles.

Killer Instinct (published August 2001)

The first book of the crime thriller series starts with Charlie teaching women self-defence lessons in the seaside town of Morecambe, in the northern part of England. She has a tough character in this book, with her motorbike and leather outfits and her look. The plot of the book begins when she visits an old night club, where she used to have a room, in order to teach her self-defense classes. But her barman friend, by the name Gary tells her that the new management doesn’t want her services any more. But everything changes when woman by the name Susie Hollins is found dead hours after she has attended one of Charlie’s classes. Meanwhile, Charlie Fox is invloved with Marc Quinn, the club owner, and she is also mixed up in illegal drugs, porn videos, as well as a number of murders. So, after the death of Susie Hollins, Charlie Fox understands that the police will go after her. But they don’t tell her that Hollins is the latest victim of rapist (homicidal), who has been stalking around the area. As Charlie finds herself threatened by the murdered, she begins to take action. This is mainly because she begins to suspect that there might be somekind of connection between the murders and the club, especially when the killer begins taking a very personal interest towards her. Even though she has always advised her students in her classes to avoid any kind of danger and don’t fight unnecessarily, she actually finds herself involved and wants to take action.

Riot Act (publishe August 2002)

In the second book, which was published on August 29th 2002, Charlie is a self-defence expert, who actually doesn’t want any troubles in her life and wants to live a peaceful life. It seemed like an easy task for her to house sitting for a friend in the Lavender Gardens Estate in English countryside. There are certain gangs of teenagers that are running riot and her desperate neighbours had to employ an expensive security firm, in order to apply rough justice, because the legal one has failed to do so. But the truth is that the situation gets worse, when a young boy from Asia is wounded to death, in what appears to be a shooting with racial motivations. So, Charlie Fox is caught in the middle of these kind of unwanted situations, when she actually comes face to face with a spectre from her time in the army past. But as the tensions rise, the lives of people depend on her.

The author published this book by hoping that people would believe the plot, because back then there hadn’t been any race riots, especially in these cities (northern ones) for around 5 years. In fact she took some ‘clues’ from the violence that happened during the summer of 2001. Once again, Charlie finds herself a comrade in arms with her former lover from the special forces; training officer Sean Meyer. The book talks about Charlie’s dark past and her relationship with her parents. Actually, Sharp made a number of drafts before finalizing this specific book. The characters in the book are well drawn, but they are also complex. More specifically, Charlie has a history of victimhood and regret, as well as she usually attracts trouble in her life. In the plot, Sean Meyer is a man from her past, who she has poorly understood with his own regrets and anger. So, what does the future hold for them?

The writer of these special crime series books Zoe Sharp actually created her heroine Charlotte, after receiving threating letters when she worked as a photojournalist. In addition, the book author made also a short film in Denmark which was optioned 20th Century Fox TV. It was actually inspired by an original song and has received a number of awards, including the Anthone, Barry (twice), Edgar, Benjamin Flanklin Awards in the United States of America. Moreover, she was nominated two times for a CWA Dagger Award in her country, the United Kingdom. Until now, there are 10 books of these thriller Charlie Fox series, as well as a novella, which is a short anthology and numerous stories that are coming soon. Zoe Sharp also wrote a crime stanalone book ‘The Blood Whisperer’, which features a female protagonist, which resembles Charlie, in the sense that she is also tough and a former CSI, by the name Kelly Jbacks.

With the latest book in the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney coming out soon, we wanted to make the very first book in the series our book of the month.

Greaney is an incredible author and if you love the "lone badass" type of books then you will LOVE the Court "Gray Man" Gentry series. Read more about it.

Featured Series

It might seem like overkill, but we're giving The Gray Man series our featured series of the month.

Honestly this is such a great series and we feel not enough people read it so we want to push it. Read more about The Gray Man series and seriously if you haven't read it - start! Amazing thrillers.

Featured Author

Mark Greaney is an incredibly talented author. Not only does he write the Gray Man series however he also writes various Jack Ryan novels. Many feel he is the best writer of them and he truly is a great author. We're happy to award our author of the month to Mark Greaney.